Wife-beating Envoy Recalled

Indian diplomat Anil Verma, currently minister (economic) at the Indian high commission in London, is being recalled and will be repatriated to his home cadre, Uttar Pradesh, after reports in the British media that he brutally assaulted his wife last month, ministry sources in New Delhi confirmed.

Verma, the third senior-most Indian diplomat in the high commission, reportedly claimed diplomatic immunity from prosecution when police arrived to question him following neighbours’ complaints about his wife beating. News agencies quoted the British Foreign Office (BFO) saying it did not tolerate diplomats working in Britain breaking the law. “We can confirm that we have formally requested waiver of diplomatic immunity for a diplomat posted at the Indian high commission in London,” the BFO was quoted as saying.

London media reports said Verma’s wife Paromita and their five-year-old-son have gone into hiding. A vivid account in a leading daily said Verma on the night in question flew into a rage over a trivial disagreement with his wife and punched her full in the face, very hard.

“She was screaming, and blood was pouring from her nose like a tap. Her clothes were covered in blood,” it quoted a neighbour as saying.

Paromita has applied for permission to stay on in Britain on humanitarian grounds. She is now separated from her husband after moving out of their home and was quoted saying that she feared he would force her to accompany him to India.